It started many months……actually years ago, with an idea to get 3 guys together for either a fishing trip or a hunting trip. Many good intentions but nothing very seemed to develop. Our schedules just never seemed to allow the 3 of us(Setter, Chuckles and myself) to get together. Well, that all changes the weekend of June 3-5 and we finally fulfilled the fishing half of our plans. The hunting trip we will take care of this fall.
Chuckles and I left for Harbor View Resort after I closed the store on Sat. Probably left town around 4:00. Loaded up 3 coolers, two bags, 8 poles, one tackle box and one tackle bag. Said our good byes and headed for the great North West. West Okoboji was our destination. For those of you who don’t know Setter(Ryan Hale) is a guide for the IGL area. He also is the new owner of Harbor View Resort. As we left Manchester we decided to stop by Scheels in Cedar Falls to pick Ryan up a B-Day present. His B-Day was Monday June 5th and since he made the decision to spend the day with a couple of loopers we thought it only appropriate to get him a little something to say Happy Birthday and also thanks. Hope he is enjoying the short reed we gave him. Anyway, back to the story. So we picked up the call and headed for Ryan’s place. Everything is going good. Making good time. Joking and having some good conversation about the weekend ahead. We get to about Britt and we decide it is time to call Ryan and give him the bad news. “Hey Ryan, got some bad new buddy. We had a flat tire and I don’t have that special key to take off my wheel nuts. So we are still stuck in Waterloo.”LOL!!!!! I told Ryan it was Chuck’s idea. So don’t anyone tell Ryan differently.LOL!!!! After we had a good laugh Chuck and I stopped to lower our fluid tank and then fill it back up again. Once back on the road we notice some rain headed our way. Just a small rain cloud no big deal. That’s what we though anyway. Boy….. were we wrong. This storm continued to grow and strength and the worst part……..we were on a collision course with it. Rain really doesn’t bother me and even small hail. Yeah, hail can do some damage but as long as your safe physically…that’s what counts. But them ugly looking hangin’ clouds…..thems the ones ya gots ta look out fer. We continued west and got to a little burg called Wesley and we start to get a little worried. Not only did we have those ugly hanging clouds but now we have something just to the south of Wesley that neither Chuck or myself had ever seen. There was a small area, maybe 200′ by 200′ and maybe 300′ high where it looked like dust or clouds were just kind of hanging on the ground. So I thought maybe a dirt track……nah, this is to high for that. We never did figure out exactly what it was but we both had a feeling mother nature was behind it and we wanted nothing to do with it. Got just past Wesley and rain cut loose. Rained so hard Chuck and I could barely talk to each other. Then the wind hit us! Right out of the north, throwing my truck to the south. Fought that wind for about a mile and then BAM! From the south comes a wind of equal strength. We finally drove out of that and arrive at Harbor View Resort about 8:30. We were greeted by Ryan almost before we even got out of the truck. I had never met Ryan before but had talked with him on MANY occasions. But he greeted my like I was an old friend who had been lost for many years. Ryan is a first rate guy and who I now can officially call one of my VERY good friends. After a few niceties we headed to a wild game feed put on my site member emover(Dave). And again, we were greeted like old family members coming home for the first time in 10 years. The food was great, the talk was awesome and the company was even better. What a spread of wild game Dave put out! After prying ourselves out of the game feed we head back to Ryan’s resort. We sat and talked for quite some time. Ended up getting to bed about 1:00am. Slept for 3 hrs and then hit the road to Spirit Lake. It was a simply B E A utiful morning. Some wind, a few clouds to play with the morning sun light. Talk about splendor! Does it get any better?! Well, it did about 15 mins after we put the boat in. Ryan had prepared us for the style of fishing that morning. Each would have a slip bobber rig baited with a leach and each would be throwing a crankbait. We anchored in one of Ryan’s little hideaway spots. We each set up our slip bobber rigs first. I thew mine out the front of the boat, probably about 30′ of the bow. The low light conditions made it a little difficult for me to see the bobber….I’m partially color blind. So I have my bobber set and reach down to grab my crankbait rod, look up and start to struggle to see my bobber……”Hey, my bobbers gone!” Set the hook and pull in a small eye that I lost right at the boat. I baited back up, casted back out, grabbed my crankin’ pole and guess what…..yep, no bobber. This time it is a nice eater walleye. In the live well it goes. We ended up with 3 eater eyes and several more that were just shy of 14″ before we moved to a new location. Next it was off to cast for a few northerns. We worked a small bay full of rushes. Had a nice perch follow my spoon, but no northerns. Then we see it! A northern! Not a huge one but none the less a northern. I’m in the front of the boat so I am anxious to get hooked up before Chuck has his chance.LOL!!! So I make a few cast but the northern pays no attention. A few more cast and absolutely no response. Chuck made a few casts and still…….nothing. Course the fact that the northern was belly up and dead as a door nail didn’t help. As we pull up next to the northern I start making some fan cast. Had a short strike but that was it. Chuck didn’t have any better luck. But a few more casts of the spoon and I have a follow! A musky! Not huge but for a guy who has never caught one before it was an awesome site. This musky was following my spoon oh so close. But wouldn’t take. Followed it all the way to the boat and I did my dog gonedest to get him to hit. Even tried to bang him on the nose. Eventually he slowly descended into the depths…..never to be seen again.
Next we decided to do some trolling. A couple of bottom bouncers and a coupe of cranks on lead core. We ended up picking up a few more eyes on the bottom bouncers and maybe one on the cranks. All in all it was a very successful morning. Got quite a few fish, saw a musky, had some good conversation and learned alot from Ryan about bottom bouncers, spinner rigs and lead core line.
During the middle of the day we took a break so that Ryan could take us around to see the sites. We went to the Berkley outlet store(where Chuck and Ryan wouldn’t let me buy anything) and drove around alot of the area to see the habitat. As a duck hunter from the east side of the state I have to tell you boys in the west, you have a wonderful resource out there. I have hunted on the Miss. River for over 30 years. I have seen some great duck hunting over that many years. But the habitat over here isn’t even in the same universe as yours. It was truly a site for these waterfowling eyes to see.
Back out on the water on West Okoboji at about 4:30pm. Hit one shore line where Chuck hooked up with a huge drum. Gave him one heck of a tussle. Hit a few docks with limited success. Then we switch docks and hit some that were in a more “wind blown” location. I start throwing my scattering shad under the docks and I ended up with about 6 or 7 bass off of two docks. Didn’t weigh them but one was a pretty nice largemouth. After the dock fishing we tried leaches off of another point. Really didn’t have much of a chance because of the lack of time. We didn’t have the time because of two reasons. 1) There was a dark cloud with rain in it and 2) We had mushrooms to fry. Compliments of Chuck. Those mushrooms really hit the spot. I had a plate full and kept them down. Chuck had a plate full and kept them down. Ryan had a plate full and………..nah……we won’t go there.
Up the next morning at 4:00am bright eyed and bushy tailed. I was bright eyed and Chuck was bushy tailed. LOL!! And Ryan, he was……well……we still aren’t going to go there.
Hit the water at Spirit for a few more eyes and a smalley or two. But the high lite for the morning…….for me anyway, was when Ryan taught Chuck and I how to use plainer boards. Not only was an education of the plainer boards appreciated but the conversation during that period was also VERY interesting. Wouldn’t you say Carl? How about you Danny? Hint(Caddy Shack).LOL!!!
I had an exceptionally great time. Chuck and I have been friends for many year but have never had the opportunity to spend much time in the outdoors together. I have a strong feeling that is going to change. Ryan and I had never met but what a great person. If you haven’t met Ryan…..you really should. He is truly one of a kind. He is a great guide, a great host, a great person and now……a great friend! Thanks for the weekend Ryan and Chuck!! It was a weekend I had been needing and it couldn’t have gone any better.
My hat’s off to both of you!!
Ducks
it went by way to fast.
Just giving you a hard time. Hopefully we can hook up this fall for some goose hunting 
